Silicon Valley execu-tive Abhishek Gattani,sentenced for thedomestic abuse of hiswife, Neha Rastogi,California. He was scheduled tobe released on June 26.

The Cuberon CEO, 38, was
given a one-month jail term —
which was reduced to 15 days for
good behavior — in a plea deal
that drew community protest.

Santa Clara County Judge Allison
M. Danner had listened to audio
recordings Rastogi made of her
husband’s abusive behavior but
said she found only one that met
the criteria for criminal behavior.

At the sentencing,
however, she
imposed extra
requirements for
him: He will be
cleaning and picking up highway
trash for two and a
half months, four
days a week. He is
also forbidden to
drink alcohol and
has been ordered
to stay away from
Rastogi for the
next 10 years and carry an electronic monitoring device for six
months. The device will test his
blood-alcohol content via facial
recognition and also employ a
breath-alcohol test.

“I am glad she [Danner] was
able to rise above all the pressure,” said Gattani’s attorney,
Michael Paez.

He said his client was “veryrelieved to have this [case]behind him.” He said the judge’sdecision was “stressful” andGattani is looking forward to“picking up the pieces of his lifeand moving forward.”He called Danner’s actions “agood decision,” adding that hebelieved Rastogi used the mediato garner extra attention forwhat he said were unsupportedclaims.

“My client took responsibility
for his mistake the one that he
made and that he accepted the
responsibility but that doesn’t
mean he is accepting all other
crazy accusation that was not
supported by any evidence,” he
said.

He said the couple’s case for
separation is now pending in
Family Court.

Rastogi’s attorney, MichaelPascoe, said the sentence wasdisappointing. Rastogi, a princi-pal product manager of mobileproducts at Walmart Lab, notpleased with the plea deal deci-sion and for the second timesince the case began, read anemotional two-page statement inthe courtroom.

“Domestic violence
is truly terrorism
and should be
termed such,” the
statement said. She
recounted being
abused for the past

10 years.

Meanwhile,Papiha Nandy,radio and TV hostand communityactivist, who protested in frontof the court on June 15, toldIndia Abroad, “We [of the]Indian-American communitydon’t want to talk about it.

“Victims should not fear
about their visa issue or job or
shelter, support system are
there, but they have to stop
these abusers,” she said.

Stanford University law professor and sociologist, Michele
Landis Dauber, showed up at
court to support Rastogi. She
said that in general domestic
violence is not taken seriously.

“It’s a very serious case and herperpetrator is a privileged andCEO and upper-class person.

And the women are often treat-ed really poorly in the court sys-tem,” she said. “However, it’srare for batters to spend anytime in jail.”She said people need to senda message to elected officialsthat “if you are not takingdomestic violence seriouslywhether it’s a sexual assault ordomestic abuse voters are goingto hold you accountable andreplace you with someone whowill take it seriously.” Daubersaid domestic violence is treatedless seriously than drug crime,shoplifting, graffiti and evendrunk driving.

“We have laws and what he
did was against the law. We have
enough laws but we need public
officials to enforce it in a more
appropriate way. He could have
served years in jail for his crime,
but he got just 13 days,” said
Dauber.

Vinita Gupta, the founder andchairman of Digital Link Corp.,and a member of the board oftrustees at Maitri, a Bay Areanonprofit which supportsdomestic violence victims in theSouth Asian community, said ina statement to India Abroad,“The outcome has had thedesired effect. Although she didnot get everything that shewanted. But social shame is thebest punishment. He has nofamily, no job, and friends andassociates are shunning him. Italso prevents others from behav-ing in a predatory way.“I think that the judge notordering him to be deported is abig plus, as moving the case toIndia could have meant deferredhearing for not just months butyears. He might be seen pickingup trash on the roadside, whichcould not do him any goodeither. As much as I wish he gota longer jail sentence, I respectthe justice system here.”A

ocial justice advocates inNew York City, Chicagoand Palo Alto, Californiarallied in support of domesticviolence survivor, NehaRastogi, the California womanwho suffered abuse by her hus-band for more than a decade.

Silicon Valley executive
Abhishek Gattani, who was
originally charged with felony
domestic violence was given a
plea deal under a lesser charge.

The June 15 multi-city rally
was organized by the National
Asian Pacific American
Women’s Forum, a nonprofit
advancing social justice and
human rights.

“We wanted to honorNeha’s courage to speak hertruth, tell her story publicly,Ashley Moy-Wooten, thegroup’s national field director.

She said the organization was
not pleased with
the plea deal.

“We are
deeply devastated with Judge
Allison M.

Danner’s pleadeal ruling,” shesaid. “Despitemuch outrageand peacefulresistance fromthe AsianAmerican andPacific Islandercommunity, the Santa ClaraSuperior Court judge, JudgeDanner failed Rastogi by reaf-firming a plea deal that com-pletely disregards Neha’s trau-ma and allows her abuserGattani to serve only 13 days injail for more than a decade ofviolence.” She said the rulingis an affront toNeha’s civilrights and theeffect of 10 yearsof abuse sheexperienced atGattani’s hands.Nonetheless,she said, “wewanted to send astrong messagethat women andall gender-basedviolence sur-vivors matterand must be heard, not onlywithin the courts, but alsowithin their workplaces, faithinstitutions, and local commu-nities.”

— NEW YORKhree men who allegedlywanted to “smash anIndian” have been arrestedand charged in connection withthe murder of a South Carolinagrocery store owner.Harnish Patel was shot deadoutside his home in Lancaster onMarch 2. The incident, whichhappened barely 10 days afterthe killing of an Indian engineerin Kansas, sent shockwavesacross the Indian-American com-munity.

The men arrested earlier this
month have so far been charged
only with conspiracy to commit
robbery and not directly with the
killing of Patel, as the investigations proceed, The Herald, a
local newspaper based in Rock
Hill, S.C., reported June 21.

The newspaper said JaquintonTradell Blair, LaJames ArteianRoss and Richard Stewart “hadroles in the robbery and conspir-acy” according to arrest warrantsreleased by police June 21.

“Although no one has yet
been charged with the murder of
Mr. Patel, our investigators continue to work this case hard. We
are continuing to put information together and will not slow
down until we are satisfied we
have the whole story and have
arrested the person or persons
directly responsible for Mr.

WSCO reported that Blair was
arrested on June 6 and Stewart
and Ross on June 8. But the
arrests and the charges were
officially made public on June

21. Earlier, officials had reported
difficulties in getting witnesses
to the crime or anyone with
knowledge of it to reach out the
authorities.

“The warrants cite the words‘smash an Indian,’ as used by thethree people arrested. Thephrase is the first indication thatthe crime could possibly havebeen a hate crime,” the Heraldsaid:But the newspaper reportedthat Doug Barfield, thespokesperson for the LancasterCounty Sheriff’s Office, refusedto discuss the motive for thecrime, and said he was not awareof any hate crime investigationby federal authorities.